This game is a very good game. It's thoroughly enjoyable with a well balanced story that shared enough time with both Miles and Peter, developing their own unique stories as well as integrating these into an overarching story that delivers an epic experience, one that can't be forgotten. The action sequences are epic, the scale is huge. The game kicks off with one of the biggest boss fights out of all three games, setting the bar really high with unique gameplay and an amazing cinematic experience. As the story progresses, you can't help but fall in love with how well Insomniac has blended these two characters individual stories together and yet kept them to their own motives.
The story is beautifully crafted and weaves together nicely with no real feeling of random switches, the switches between their missions feel relevant and motivated. The sheer magnitude of the story is impressive and progresses very smoothly and nicely into the Venom storyline, which makes perfect sense in this games world. However, after we are introduced to venom and we begin to explore his motive and storyline towards the end, it becomes very rushed and feels forced, with characters doing random things very suddenly just because it's nearing the end of the game and they have to before it ends. For example, Miles asking Hailey out when the world is ending, feels very sudden and randomly placed as he spends the whole game pining for her anyway. The introduction of Miles' new suit in the final chapters isn't motivated at all - it's very random and almost feels done because the developers felt they had to in order to keep it interesting and fresh, which wasn't needed. If you're going to introduce a new suit, give a reason for it. For example, the Anti suits in both games. They are both there for a reason. There is no context provided for Miles' new suit near the end it just happens, and I take issue with that. We have a rush through of all the venom content - the scream boss fight feels very forced just to pop in a quick cameo (if you're going to do this do it right and flesh it out more) and the whole motive for venom isn't really explained or investigated more than, he wants a rock to take over the world. Some more info on that would have been great.
It almost felt to me that venoms saga needed more development and more chapters. It almost felt like it needed to be it's own separate story and not crammed into the end of the game. It probably would have worked better as an expansion to the game at a later date, like a part 2, which would give the developers more time to explore the various symbiotes and venoms motive. Instead it feels again very quick and I could almost hear the developers saying 'we need to wrap this up now'. Just a few more chapters could have fixed this problem perhaps. The missions toward the end feel very forced and conversations happen at times they probably shouldn't, for example when the world is in danger and people are being killed etc. It just needed more fleshing out.
My second small gripe is the boss fights. Yes, the first one is great. Huge action sequence, love it. However from there on in it becomes very generic. Each boss fight follows the same formula and pattern. You get three rounds to punch them about a bit, and the rest of the action happens through cutscenes. What I loved about the first game was the variety in boss fights. Wether it was pressing different buttons or having to defeat them in a different way than before, it kept it engaging and exciting. This game feels like a monotonous boss run of the same thing over and over. Not much changes. Sure, they throw in a few developments on certain things, but it's mainly the same. They become very boring and by the end you're left wondering what you really did in those fights. My big issue with this is the final boss with venom. Man, you get 4 rounds with the guy and then it's a cutscene to the end. Yeah, he gets defeated in a cutscene. There's not much interaction or involvement with this either. You press a few buttons throughout but it's mainly sitting back and enjoying the show. Compared to the first game where you have to do more to stop Doc Ock, and the boss fight actually evolves throughout, this one is very generic and you're left wondering 'was that it?' To be honest, the first boss fight felt like much more of a 'final boss' than the actual final boss. This brings me onto my next concern.
The game has lots of great cinematic cutscenes. This is amazing. But it's not so amazing when you have no involvement in these scenes and you simply have to just watch them like a movie. These cutscenes are where most of the action takes place. Compared to the first game where you can interact throughout and press buttons or move the joysticks, this game limits you on what you can do. Most of if not all of the important action will happen in a cutscene. You have to sit there and watch it, and then when it's your turn, you do the same repeated pattern of simply beating up some bad guys and then the next cutscene rolls in. Give me more button pressing, give me more to do, make me feel like Spider-Man like I did in the first game! I loved how they incorporated the gamer into the cutscenes and the boss fights, but for some reason they severely reduced that in this one. A shame, because that's what I loved about it. I felt like I was Spider-Man, but in this game, I felt like a guy at the cinema watching a movie instead of being directly involved. That's what I wish for in the next game. More involvement on my end. Don't be afraid to make us do something in those scenes, it will keep us engaged and not looking away from the screen!
Don't get me wrong - this game is a beautiful game and is very well made as always. But what they done so we'll in the first two games, they took away in this one. Please, give it back to us. Make us Spider-Man again. Be greater...
The story is beautifully crafted and weaves together nicely with no real feeling of random switches, the switches between their missions feel relevant and motivated. The sheer magnitude of the story is impressive and progresses very smoothly and nicely into the Venom storyline, which makes perfect sense in this games world. However, after we are introduced to venom and we begin to explore his motive and storyline towards the end, it becomes very rushed and feels forced, with characters doing random things very suddenly just because it's nearing the end of the game and they have to before it ends. For example, Miles asking Hailey out when the world is ending, feels very sudden and randomly placed as he spends the whole game pining for her anyway. The introduction of Miles' new suit in the final chapters isn't motivated at all - it's very random and almost feels done because the developers felt they had to in order to keep it interesting and fresh, which wasn't needed. If you're going to introduce a new suit, give a reason for it. For example, the Anti suits in both games. They are both there for a reason. There is no context provided for Miles' new suit near the end it just happens, and I take issue with that. We have a rush through of all the venom content - the scream boss fight feels very forced just to pop in a quick cameo (if you're going to do this do it right and flesh it out more) and the whole motive for venom isn't really explained or investigated more than, he wants a rock to take over the world. Some more info on that would have been great.
It almost felt to me that venoms saga needed more development and more chapters. It almost felt like it needed to be it's own separate story and not crammed into the end of the game. It probably would have worked better as an expansion to the game at a later date, like a part 2, which would give the developers more time to explore the various symbiotes and venoms motive. Instead it feels again very quick and I could almost hear the developers saying 'we need to wrap this up now'. Just a few more chapters could have fixed this problem perhaps. The missions toward the end feel very forced and conversations happen at times they probably shouldn't, for example when the world is in danger and people are being killed etc. It just needed more fleshing out.
My second small gripe is the boss fights. Yes, the first one is great. Huge action sequence, love it. However from there on in it becomes very generic. Each boss fight follows the same formula and pattern. You get three rounds to punch them about a bit, and the rest of the action happens through cutscenes. What I loved about the first game was the variety in boss fights. Wether it was pressing different buttons or having to defeat them in a different way than before, it kept it engaging and exciting. This game feels like a monotonous boss run of the same thing over and over. Not much changes. Sure, they throw in a few developments on certain things, but it's mainly the same. They become very boring and by the end you're left wondering what you really did in those fights. My big issue with this is the final boss with venom. Man, you get 4 rounds with the guy and then it's a cutscene to the end. Yeah, he gets defeated in a cutscene. There's not much interaction or involvement with this either. You press a few buttons throughout but it's mainly sitting back and enjoying the show. Compared to the first game where you have to do more to stop Doc Ock, and the boss fight actually evolves throughout, this one is very generic and you're left wondering 'was that it?' To be honest, the first boss fight felt like much more of a 'final boss' than the actual final boss. This brings me onto my next concern.
The game has lots of great cinematic cutscenes. This is amazing. But it's not so amazing when you have no involvement in these scenes and you simply have to just watch them like a movie. These cutscenes are where most of the action takes place. Compared to the first game where you can interact throughout and press buttons or move the joysticks, this game limits you on what you can do. Most of if not all of the important action will happen in a cutscene. You have to sit there and watch it, and then when it's your turn, you do the same repeated pattern of simply beating up some bad guys and then the next cutscene rolls in. Give me more button pressing, give me more to do, make me feel like Spider-Man like I did in the first game! I loved how they incorporated the gamer into the cutscenes and the boss fights, but for some reason they severely reduced that in this one. A shame, because that's what I loved about it. I felt like I was Spider-Man, but in this game, I felt like a guy at the cinema watching a movie instead of being directly involved. That's what I wish for in the next game. More involvement on my end. Don't be afraid to make us do something in those scenes, it will keep us engaged and not looking away from the screen!
Don't get me wrong - this game is a beautiful game and is very well made as always. But what they done so we'll in the first two games, they took away in this one. Please, give it back to us. Make us Spider-Man again. Be greater...